Lurid Blackbirds
by PersianCalliope
Summary: Another time travelling tale where Lily Luna Potter finds herself in the Marauders Era. But everyone from the future continues on without her. Clique much?
1. Prologue

**Chapter 1 – Prologue**

Basically, this was Al's fault. He keeps a _time turner_ in his room. Only freaks… slash… insanely smart people do that. Actually, if Al was smart enough to keep up with his workload he wouldn't need a time turner. Not that… anyways.

I just happened to be in his room, investigating his friendship with Alice Longbottom- to see whether or not they were dating. I just happened to trip over and break the stupid ugly necklace. Sometimes I hate him.

(FYI he totally is – Alice's owl Artemis flew in with a letter which I definatley did not read.)

Anyways, the time turner smashed and instantly, I was sucked into what felt like an airtight tube and was wrenched from Al's room, August 2024.

Maybe if they had found the time turner smashed in Al's room, they would have realised what happened. Consequently, I wouldn't have been able to return home again. Fortunately, I grasped onto the necklace so tightly it almost broke. Again.

The air turned cold and my brain registered that I must be outside. It also registered that I was on the ground, lying on the freezing whiteness that was snow.

In summer?

My head was spinning as I tried to sit up and gather my surroundings. I saw Christmas lights decorating a quaint little village I didn't recognise and a lot of strangers staring at me in the street. Then everything went black.

When I woke up again, it was three weeks later, Christmas eve 1976.


	2. Minnie & the Marauders

**Chapter 2 – Minnie and the Marauders**

Lily Luna's POV

"…found in the middle of the street by the Prewetts … It's a wonder she didn't freeze to death… dead of winter… originally she was just sent to St. Mungos… looked school age, they transferred her here."

I woke up to the sound of forgein voices fussing over my horizontal body. When I opened my eyes I recognised the triangular, cream coloured tiles of the Hogwarts Hospital wing and sat up so quickly that my head started spinning. Again.

How the hell did I get here?

No one is here during the summer holidays.

And what was with all the Christmas lights?

More importantly who was this woman walking out of Madame Cattermole's office? Well done Lily, that is definitely step no.1 to figuring out what the hell happened to you.

"Oh, I see you've woken up." This mysterious imposter says, giving off these super friendly vibes. Maybe Cattermole is training up a new assistant…

"Who is 'Cattermole'?"

Damn, I talk too much. "Uh…she's the healer at-"

OH MY GOD

"at?" the friendly vibes prompted. But I was way too busy grinning so much it hurt.

"MINNIE!"

Aunt Minnie's eyes widened slightly then narrowed angrily, her mouth now a very thin line. "And who might you be?" Minnie replied haughtily. Wow. She's gone bonkers.

"Say whaaaat?" I asked, confused.

"Minerva, it might distress the girl to be pressuring her as soon as she wakes up."

"I'm sorry, Poppy." And she turned once again to me, "I know you must be confused, so am I. But you name will help us to figure out how you ended up in the middle of Godric's Hollow."

"I wasn't in Godric's Hollow" I replied quickly. I just got even more confused, "the place I fell wasn't Godric's Hollow aunt Minnie."

"That's where you landed" intervened _Poppy,_ "now I think you should answer the professor."

"uh, I'm Lily." Minnie stared at me. Then I realised her hair was thick and brown, and her usually lined face was… younger looking. "Shit."

* * *

 **Sixth Year Boys Dorm**

Third POV

"Oi, Prongs check the… thing to see if Snivellus is in the Hospital wing yet," yelled Sirius from his bed.

"Ask Remus"

"Oi, Moony check the… yeah… anyways see if Snivellus-"

"yeah, yeah I get it." Remus cut him off.

"Would now be an alright moment to ask why you think Snape would be in the Hospital wing?" Asked the fifth member of the dorm, Frank Longbottom.

"you really don't want to know." Said Remus

"So is he?" yelled Sirius.

"nah, he's still in the dungeons with Nott but-"

"In the Dungeons?" exclaimed Frank with wide eyes, "don't you think-"

"but _what,_ Moony?" interrupted Sirius.

"you know, someday, I'm gonna care enough to ask how you know how you know where everyone in the castle is." Sighed Frank.

"Oh, you know," said James evasively, "an obscure and complicated spell that only Remmy here knows how to do…"

"Uh-huh"

"BUT _WHAT_ MOONY?"

"the map says that there's a girl in there…" he began.

"…and?"

"Her name is ummmm… Lily-"

"Lily?"

"LILY?"

"Lily…Lily Potter."

"…"

"what map?"

"…"

"So," started Sirius, "off to the hospital wing then."

* * *

 **Hospital Wing**

Lily Luna's POV

"you wouldn't happen to be related to James Potter, would you?" asked McGonagall, eying my stupid hair that looked as if it hadn't been brushed in years.

"I…oh, ummmm…." I stuttered. Seriously? Well duh! I'm related to both of them. "Well duh! I'm related to both of them."

Shut up Lily, don't be stupid.

"Both of them?" asked McGonagall, looking confused for the first time in like ever.

"Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" well, I think you can just tell her the truth, Lily. "I'm from the future. Yeah."

"The future?" Asked McGonagall skeptically. "may I remind you that time travel is only possible in small, and very infrequent circumstances."

"It's always possible aunt Minnie, it's just not always safe."

"Let's just say she is for the moment, Minerva," said _Poppy,_ "where do you claim to be from. Well, when?"

"About 6 years, I'd say because I don't recognise you as one of my students."

"No." smooth Lily, "and does Jamie have a ten-year-old sister?'

"…"

"oh, anywho, I live about fifty odd years from now."

"…"

"I'm James' granddaughter, Lily Potter, and you, Minnie, are my favouritest Transfiguration teacher ever. Headmistress too. Oh, is Dumbledore alive?"

Oh look, there's two randomos standing at the door. I think they're staring at me. Ohhhhh, he's hot. Wait…

* * *

 **Dorm**

R: I can't believe they went.

F: I know. And It's close to midnight on Christmas Eve.

P: That would make it… Christmas… I think…

R: And McGonagall is there!

F: They're screwed.

P: You trying out for the vacant Quidditch position?

 **A/N: So how'd you like it?**


	3. Lord Dumbles, Master of Hogwarts school

**Chapter 3 - His Royal Highness, Lord Dumbles, Master** **of all Hogwarts School**

Lily Luna POV

Four other people were standing in the headmi- _headmaster's_ office. Aaaaaaaaaand one of the was Dumbledore. Could this day get any weirder?

"Minerva, perhaps you could fetch Ms. Evans from her dormitory?"

...apparently it could.

My, um, grandfather was staring at me. "hi."

"..."

well that was rude.

"Miss, er- " Dumbledore began.

"Miss Potter, professor." I smiled at him. I'm such a suck up.

"So the map wasn't lying then, Jamie." Psh, course not, the map never lies.

"And how would you know that? _Potter?"_ Oooooooooooooops. Oh, it's the hot guy. You know, I think I've seen him before. Somewhere. Or you know. Maybe not.

"Before we delve into the exciting mysteries of this so called _map,_ we should probably figure out your predicament, Miss. Potter." said Dumbledore.

"I have a question, professor." Asked gramps, receiving a nod from the wrinkly old headmaster. "How is she called Lil- ?"

"I think _I_ should be the one to introduce myself, gramps!" I said, laughing at there bewildered faces, "I'm Lily Luna Potter, I was born in the year 2008, and my favourite subject is transfiguration. Obviously. I own an owl called Taurus, after my star sign. Oh! In case you're wondering, my birthday's on the 10th of May, the same day an EF4 tornado struck America and killed 21 people." I rambled on for a little while, "there are a million of them, but my favourite cousin by far is Lu- "

"Lily Potter?" Asked Dumbledore with an amused smile on his face. "Good thing I sent Professor McGonagall then."

"You're never going to make us call her _McGonagall,_ you know." Grandpa and I said a the exact same time. Mr. Sexy just burst into peals of uncontrollable girly laughter. My nose subconsciously wrinkled in disgust.

Actually. I don't get how that's a thing. All you can do is scrunch it up like some great-great-great grandpa potato. So I subconsciously did _that_ in disgust.

Minnie took this oppourtune moment to walk through the door.

* * *

 **Lily I POV**

What could possibly be so wrong? Professor McGonagall is never that short with me. Maybe it was that duel I had with stupid Potter two weeks ago, but I don't really see how that would warrant the Headmaster... Oh Great, we've arrived. Be calm Lils, be calm.

Ok she's opening the -

What the fudge?

Who is that girl, I've never seen her before in my life.

 _Gross_ there's Potter and Black - actually they probably disfigured this girl to look more like James, cause she looks a lot like Ja- Potter... with that stupid hot stupid black hair. Whatever.

Ah-hem. And they've called me here cause they're finally confiscating his head Boy Badge. yaaaaaaayyyyyyyyyyyyy. Yay. yes. ya-

"...Ms. Evans."

huh?

"Sorry, professor?" Damn, he probably thinks I'm a lunatic now. Not fair. I can't have Headmaster Dumbledore think I'm crazy, I really can't.

"Dumbles said take a seat." explained Sirius, deliberately slowly.

Dumbles, what the hell? "That's not how you address a professor, Black, let alone the Headmaster." I said. Snootily. It's not my fault I'm a suck up - it's a family trait.

"Oh, sorry, his Royal highness, Lord and Master of all Hogwarts school, chief-". Stupid Black.

"Thank you kindly for the introduction, Mister Black." said the Headmaster

"You're welcome, Lord Dumbles."

"soooooo," I intervened, I mean this is getting out of control, " _why_ am I here at the ungodly hour of 11 o'clock?"

"I know right!" said Black do a terrible high pitched imitation of my voice. "Who would even _dream_ of being awake at elev-"

"Ms. Evans, may I introduce you to Ms. Potter."

"Uh, your sister?"

* * *

 **Lily Luna POV**

Facepalm.

Ow

Mental facepalm.

"Are you okay?" asked Grandpa J.

"Yeah. I'm just practicing my routine habit of mental and physical facepalming." sheesh.

How do teenagers even survive in the seventies.

"what the fu...frick is facepalming?"

"10 points from Gryffindor, Black, for obscene language. Albus, this is getting nowhere!" Roared Minnie. Seriously.

She is like... Rumbleroar or something.

Roar.

I'm not insane, I swear.

.

.

.

Did she say Black?

.

"Lily Potter here claims to be from the future," started Minnie, furious. "We have made the conscious decision to trust her. She had an accident a couple of weeks ago that resulted in her landing in Godric's Hollow, she was noticed by the Prewett family and taken to St. Mungos, when they noticed she had a wand on her-"

"Lily P- ?"

"MS. EVANS! If you and your fellow seventh years do not stop carrying on like a bunch of whining hippogriffs this instant I will take 1000 points from each of you, strip you and Mr. Potter of your head titles and badges, and badges, and give you three detentions with Filch every night up until the day you graduate. Do I make myself perfectly clear?"

"..."

And then she went on this super long tale about I'm from the future, how I and the is Time Turner which she made me give the Dumbles. I wonder if I'll ever be able to get back home. Wow, I hadn't thought about that until now.

I hope I can get out of here.

Home.

O_O

Wait, Lily, this is Albus Dumbledore. Of course he can get me home.

"Who did this interesting contraption belong to, Miss. Potter?"

Waaaait. Hold up. Is he saying that... they didn't have time turners in the 70's? I would never have survived fifth year without one. Well, without my brother having one moderately accessible.

"You don't have time turners here?"

"Oh, we do, just much less interesting and much less developed."

"Well, it belongs... belonged... to my brother, Al. Albus.

"Cool name, I bet he loves his parents for that."

I know right? Al has the stupidest name in existence.

"If we restore this time turner, we might be able to return you to your original time."

MIGHT?

what the frick!

I can't stay here for the rest of my life, I have to see if Scorpious EVER asks Rosie out!

"Who're Scorpious and Rosie?"

Wow, this is a bad day for me.

.

"Do all the people in the future have names as _awesome_ as Albus and Scorpious? - No offence Dumbles."

"Basically, yeah." I said, thinking of Lorcan and Lysander Scamander.

"ALBUS!"

"So, Miss. Potter, would you mind transferring into the 7th year class of 1977?"

ha. he thinks I'm in 7th year, usually people think I'm in like 3rd year. Until they realise I'm Lily Potter. But does that mean I have to like... stay here? " Sure, but how long would I be staying?"

"I'm sorry, I can't say at this stage."

Well that's reassuring.

"So, Miss. Evans, If you could please accompany Miss. Potter here to the Gryffindor dorms?"

"But, I'm not in -"

"I think it would be best." Said Dumbledore with an air of finality.

Ew. I don't want to go live in the Lions' Common room for - well. Yeah.

My Grandparents were both looking at me very curiously. Probably wandering which house I'm in. I Probably won't tell them I'm in Slytherin, their tiny prejudice minds would probably explode.

Anywho,

"Actually miss. Potter," noooooooooo, I want to meet my family properly, not have them hate meeeeeeeee. Please! "you should probably send me an Owl with an appropriate pseudonym, as well as class choices.

I nodded my head in understanding.

I can get ahead in NEWT work. yay?

"can I pretend to be James' cousin and keep Potter?" I'm rather attached to my name. Oh well.

"Won't that be a bit suspicious though?" said James. "All the Purebloods will know their family tree well enough to spot the lie."

"You have an uncle?" James nodded. " Then Lily can be his low-key daughter. I understand he travels a lot, so he wishes his daughter to have a stable education in her final year of schooling."

"Okay, but Lily will still attract too much attention." said James, who was now looking nervously and Lily Evans.

"Meh, people can gossip and giggle all they like. I wanna keep my name."

"..."

I admit, I sound like a petulant child.

Who am I kidding? I am a petulant child.

"Professor, I don't have any clothes, or like school stuff."

"I'm sure you'll find everything you need in your dorm."

"Uh, thanks."

.

 **A/N:**

 **hiya again.**


	4. Year of the Reading enthusiasts

**Chapter 4 - The year of the Reading Enthusiasts**

Lily Luna POV

.

 _Dear Headmaster Dumbles,_

 _Firstly, hi. You probably guessed that you're... otherwise occupied in my time. It's awesome to get the chance to meet you, But if you can't get me home, I'll wickedly deface your grave in the future. *Sigh* I suppose that doesn't make sense though does it, seeing as, well, yeah. Anyways, I'd better get home. (Serious threat)_

 _I'm in Slytherin, by the way. Although I do understand that it would be kind of unsuitable right now._

 _Also, I'm meant to be just starting 6th year, not half way through my seventh. Not being arrogant or anything but I'm pretty sure I'll be able to handle it. Thank you so much. 3_

 _Ahem._

 _My Subjects: Alchemy, Arithmancy, Charms, Potions and Transfiguration._

 _Lots of Hugs and Platonic Kisses,_

 _Lily Luna Potter._

 _._

"What're you doing?" asked Lily, smiling at me (slightly creepily I might add), "Oh, you're writing to the headmaster. Soooooooooooooooo. Lily Potter then... are you... are you James' daughter... then?"

"Didn't people talk about this like ten minutes ago?" I asked, bemused, she didn't seem like the Lily Evans I'd heard of.

"Maybe, It's too late to concentrate about that sort of thing."

"I didn't listen either." I confessed, wanting her to like me. "I'm your granddaughter, no one in their right mind would name their daughter after their parent. You know, unless you were... dead."

"What!" she said, her happiness crumpling, and forming instead into anger. "OUR GRANDDAUGHTER!?"

"y-yeah?"

"I DO NOT BELIEVE THIS I HATE HIM"

sheesh. What'd grampa do?

* * *

SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*SLEEP*

* * *

Still Lily Luna POV

.

I woke up the next morning as freezing as a girl forced to live in Scotland.

"Um, hi." said this freckly blond haired girl from across the dorm. "You're new right? Lily said something about transferring for NEWT exams."

"oh, yeah." I said, trying to figure out who she is. Either she disappears into the oblivion of warfare statistics or I need to concentrate more in history classes. "I'm Lily Potter."

"Lily...Potter?" she said dubiously.

Well she can't take a hint.

...Insert memorised explanation

"Yeah, you know James? I'm his cousin, but he probably never mentioned me before 'cause me and my dad never stuck around long enough to call England home. We lived mostly in Singapore and travelled around for a few years. But obviously I had to start at a normal school for a bit before taking my NEWTs." Saying that out loud makes it sound a whole lot less plausible. GO me.

"...Lily?"

"Yeah, my name is Lily..."

... Nope

Does she not have a name or-?

"Oh! sorry, I'm Elise Romeo."

Well her conversation isn't stilted at all.

"Is it just you and Lily in the dorm then?"

Wow, I've resorted to asking questions I already know the answer to.

"Um, Alice and Lily went down for breakfast already, and Mary and Marlene are away for the holidays."

...

This is so awkward

"So would you mind waiting for me to get dressed and then go down to breakfast with me? This castle is like a labyrinth."

Ten points to Lily for using smart words :)

"Sure." she said, smiling sweetly.

Well she seems nice enough. Nothing like my normal friends back home but anyways. I sighed thinking about Lucy. I wonder what she's doing right now.

Anywho.

CLOTHES!

Last night I sort of grabbed a random T-shirt and shorts and went up to the Astronomy tower and thought for a bit. It's weird and kind of scary being alone here. Whenever I had a fight with Lucy or Al or James I used to creep up to the Astronomy tower and stare at the world. It reminds me of home. Sigh. So yeah, I opened the trunk on my bed and looked at the contents.

It has a couple of sets of the school uniform (in Gryffindor colours EWW) and the robes. It also has quite inconspicuous muggle clothes, which I suppose are okay. The seventies clothes were a bit strange. There's a good mixture of skirts, shorts and... flared jeans. Other random stuff was in there too. Shirts, tracksuits, jumpers/sweaters and whatever else I don't really care.

I respect this Dumbledore. Ish.

All of the shoes were in my size, as was the... underwear.

Trying to look natural, I put on a black skirt with stockings (it's bloody cold up here, I always forget how cold winter is by the time autumn rolls around), black boots and a jumper/sweater/whatever.

When I came out of the bathroom with a bit of makeup on, Elise looked at me weirdly. She was just wearing seventies style flared jeans with ordinary comfortable clothing. 'Spose I'm a bit overdressed.

I shrugged, "First impressions usually last."

She nodded

* * *

Elise is actually so funny. We talked about books and muggle culture, instead of seeming geekyish, I actually felt like a normal human female person. Unusual.

oh well.

I have to focus on pretending not to know where to go.

When we walked into the Great Hall, I stopped.

Um.

It looked so ridiculously... in order.

Slytherins were at the Slytherin table.

The Geeks were reading or sitting in almost silence at the Ravenclaw table.

The Loveable Pushovers were chatting and stuff at the Hufflepuff table.

And the Lions were being generic and lionesque at the Gryffindor table.

But like, by themselves.

I guess whatever interhouse spirit we pretend to have in the future hasn't... occurred yet.

Elise obviously took my expression to be shock cause she smiled and told be she was the same back in her first year.

We sat down across from Lily and a cute girl with short dark hair who immediately decided to introduce herself.

"Hi, I'm Alice Prewett. I think my parents found you actually. Lily says you woke up yesterday."

"Oh that's, nice." I said glaring at Lily, "my apparating skills aren't as polished as I'd like them to be, so tell them thank you. I'm Lily Potter by the way."

"Lily Potter?" She said stifling a laugh," cool. That's cool."

Weirdo

"So what do you guys do around here. In a crumbling medieval castle during Christmas?"

"...Guys?" asked Elise

"Well," started Alice, " we talk, read, eat and have snowball fights."

"So excluding snowball fights and _reading._ " I said, rolling my eyes, "eating and talking, fun."

They all just looked at me.

Was 1977 International Reading enthusiasts year or something?

Lily and Elise settled into a boring conversation about something or other and Alice just stared at me for a bit. Nice.

I was just about to leave when I heard the telltale cry of "Cousin!" from somewhere vaguely behind me.

"Whatcha doing?" James asked me.

I snorted "Talking about _books."_

"...sounds like fun. Anyways, Remus and Sirius were wondering if you wanted to come to Hogsmeade today. Christmas presents and all that."

"Christmas?" I asked

"It's Christmas eve." he whispered.

"Oh, little late then but um. Sure, when are you going?"

"Now?"

My guess is that it's not a Hogsmeade weekend. Who cares?

"Ok, is... the short one coming?" I said, trying to remember pictures of the marauders. There were definatley four of them.

"Frank?"

I shook my head. "No, Moony.. W... Worm...Wormtail? Wormtail! Is he coming?"

"Nah, he went home today just for Christmas. How do you know who'?

"Lily mentioned you."

"Really?"

No.

"Yeah"

No. Never. Not in a million years.

* * *

"Lily, who is that girl really?" asked Alice.

"She told me," whispered Elise, " that she's James' cousin."

"Does it matter?" said Lily, vaguely. "But yeah, James said that last night."

" _James_ said that last night?"

"Yeah, he was there because- "

" _James?_ "

"...Shut up."


	5. After Breakfast

**Chapter 5 - After Breakfast**

* * *

Lily POV

"Black, Lupin, finish breakfast already, we're going!" shouted James across the hall.

"Prongs." I gasped, covering my ears, "sheesh m'geese you don't need to friggen yell, there's like twelve people in the hall. You are soo like my brother."

"His name is James, I presume." He said, nodding in an approving manner.

"How the actual hell did you know that?" I asked, laughing.

The boy with the awesome black hair (and name) ran past us and linked arms with me, started skipping and singing some deranged seventies song. I tried to stand still, but he tugged me forwards and I stumbled over my feet and *gasp* scraped my knee. Ow.

"Padfoot, let the girl be." said... Remus?

James helped me up and everything was going swimmingly until-

"Why are you pretending to be James' cousin?" asked Lupin with an annoying smirk, looking between James and me.

"...pretending?"

"whaaaat, we aren't pretending anything." said James, "Lily here was my best friend long before you were."

Remus stopped. "I'm your best friend?" he asked.

"No, I was talking to Padfoot."

 _Hmm. James sure knows how to talk his way out of a tight situation, which is a quality that my bro-_

"Stop it!" I yelled at James, who had been hitting my arm in an increasingly insistent manner for the previous ten seconds.

"Lily! Shut up..." he said, looking at Remus.

"Ok seriously," said Remus, "no... shut up Padfoot- no one cares about your lame jokes," he looked directly at me, I think it's a good sign that he only looks curious, not murderous. "why are you telling everyone that you are James' cousin when you clearly aren't, why do you need to? How did you convince James to go along with whatever you're doing? And most importantly, if you're going to pretend to be one of James' relatives, why in Merlin's name did you call yourself _Lily Potter?"_

 _He's right, I probably shouldn't have stuck with that name._

 _"_ OKAY FIRSTLY!" said Padfoot, really much too loudly, "that _is_ her name, Secondly, she's actually his half sister, and Thirdly, will you go with me to the Christmas Ball?"

Remus stopped "go with you to the... ball?" he asked.

"No, I was talking to Lily."

"She is not my Half sister!"

"What Christmas Ball?"

Sirius turned to look at me mischievously, "The one that's tomorrow night."

Oh.

"Sure."

...

Does that mean he likes me? Or was he distracting Remus?

Uh, being a girl is so complicated, and anyways, he is like fifty years older than me.

Ew.

He _is_ hot though...

* * *

A FEW HOURS LATER

LILY LUNA POV

I actually just had the awesomest idea ever - I'm going to start a diary! Like all of those muggles in desperate and interesting situations!

I have a weird feeling I just jumped on a completely different train of thought...

"Lily, why are you sitting on your bed with... your eyes closed?" asked a voice.

"Shut up Lucy, I'm in my mind castle." I yelled. Probably unnecessarily.

Oh wait... I think it's a mind-palace.

Meh.

I opened my eyes to find two distinctly not-Lucy girls whispering to each other. Bother.

Do people actually say that?

"...say what?" asked one of the girls.

who is she?

"who are you?" I asked her.

"Lily... it's me Alice, are you okay? You seem a bit confused." she asked cautiously.

Oh Alice! The boring, bookish one.

"No, I'm fine. I was just using a difficult memorising technique to remember... something." I said, "well, I was trying to anyways."

"Are you sure?" Asked Lucy, "you were talking to yourself."

I frowned. I talk to myself all the time - Lucy knows that... no seriously most people think I'm crazy or something but Lucy and I are closer than identical twins. Maybe this person is an-

"Imposter!"

"...what?" asked the Lucy-imposter looking bemused-ly at Alice.

"Step away from her Alice, this person is clearly trying to impersonate Lucy to extract valuable information about my parents. Or your parents. Who are your parents again?"

"Lily," said Alice, walking over to me and looking weirdly at the Lucy-imposter, "who's Lucy?"

What!?

"What do you mean?" I asked, my voice trembling slightly, "Is this all a conspiracy? Are you an Alice-imposter?"

"We're not-"

"Yes you are! And you're terrible ones too - Alice graduated last year and Lucy has brown eyes like me..."

That's weird.

My... head feels like... like a...palace

Huh.

Maybe Lucy-imposter put a spell on me or something.

Wait.

I lost my train of though - I was thinking about getting a diary.

"Lily?"

meh.

"LILY!"

* * *

 _I'm sorry this is very delayed - I put this small chapter together today so that you know I haven't forgotten about this story. :)_


	6. Ode to Taraus

**Chapter 6 - Ode to Taraus**

Lily Luna POV

* * *

Wait what where am I-

Oh.

Aaand it's the indicative triangle ceiling again. You know, I'm surprised the Hospital wasn't renovated after the battle, because it is seriously old. Like… Hogwarts old. That's the thing, like fifty years and two wars later – this place looks exactly the same.

Except in this time there's no one huddled around my sick bed, worrying about my health.

It's funny, even after James and his friend left, and now Al and Rosie have graduated, they still find the time to obsess over whichever family member fell off their broom or like caused an explosion in Potions. No, not even my gra-

"Lily!" the sound echoed around the empty room.

I jumped violently at the unexpected noise.

You know, I never thought the past was this interesting, the textbooks make it out to seem dark and gloomy and... murderous.

"Uh…" I paused, searching for words, "Is someone there?"

"No one can have Christmas alone," muttered a voice from the darkness, "especially not in a hospital bed, so we thought you'd like some company."

Is that James?

In a familiar swish of fabric, two messy haired boys appeared at my bedside. James sat down awkwardly on the mattress, and dumped a few-

"PRESENTS?" I semi-yelled, "for me?"

Black glanced at me, his grey eyes dancing, with a small smirk playing on his face, "no, they're for the house elves."

Oh.

Well that's extremely awkward.

I'm officially never talking to either of them again.

"Lily?" I snapped my head up at James' words, "you know he's joking right? We don' give presents to… elves."

Huh.

Strange, dad always made a point of buying Kreacher at least _something_.

I wonder what he's doing right now.

Well not right now, like in the parallel time stream where he's in the future but like right now right now. Hmmm

"Lily?" I snapped my head-

My neck _really_ hurts right now.

The badly-wrapped presents were ripped open in a matter of seconds, leaving a few ordinary looking gifts. Among them was a blue feathered quill, some parchment a suspiciously large amount of chocolate and sweets and a bronze plated bird cage.

I looked up at them, my eyes wide, clutching the delicate cage in both hands.

There was a short pause while Black muttered something to James that I didn't catch.

"Uh Lily," mumbled James, twisting his hands together, "its to go with a snowy owl that I... got you."

I swallowed.

Um.

Oh.

He got me an owl?

And that's when I started bawling, because I mean he was getting older and slower and sometimes he would bite people but I'm sure he didn't mean it and Taraus really was such a beautiful owl, and I never thanked him for all those midnight trips across Mackenzie Glade – I mean he was probably really tired and sometimes I forgot to buy him food, and Oh my God who's feeding him now?

James and Sirius were looking at each other and I could tell they were weirded out by my sudden breakdown.

C'mon Lily.

S`mile, make a joke out of it.

"Thanks Grandpa," I chuckled weakly, "sure you gave them to the right Lily?"

The comment caused a pathetically small smile to appear on Black's face

Damn.

He really looks like a girl when he smiles.

As it transpired, Black bought me practically the entire contents of Honeydukes, and Lily the piles of stationary.

"Probably taken from from her enormous supply of spare quills and parchment," said James, not unkindly.

"So" asked Black, his lilting voice making my head feel fuzzy, "what happened?"

Well that's a good question actually, "I have no idea."

James looked a bit worried, but if Sirius was then masked it well.

Insert awkward pause

"Um, guys?" I added, "what happens now?"

"..."

"Snowball fight?"

* * *

A snowball fight and many hot drinks later...

"So about this dance…" I started, before noticing the smirk creep onto Black's features.

James cleared his throat loudly.

Wow

What a hoe

"About the dance," I soldiered on bravely, "what's it for?"

The smirk slid off Sirius' face as he stood up and deliberately walked over to where James and I were sitting. He pulled up a chair and looked into my eyes with those beautiful stormy-

"Lily?"

"Yes?" I breathed

"You do know its Christmas right?" he laughed, deftly ducking my hand as it flapped in the air where his face was a split second before.

"Urgh," I mumbled, turning to face a frowning James, "what I meant to say, before I was rudely interrupted-"

I'm looking at you, hoe.

"is that there isn't a Christmas Dance in the future."

"Really?" James sounded disinterested.

"Maybe something happened?" I persisted

But the two were much too busy having some form of non-verbal conversation to notice.

* * *

 **A/N: I'm so sorry I'm a awful person, I haven't even thought about this story for such a long time.**

 **I really do promise to keep updating this story - even if takes a long time.**

 **Always feel free to PM me for any suggestions or ideas, or leave a review.**

 **x**


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